YouTube Star Austin Jones Arrested After Being Charged with 2 Counts of Child Porn Production
YouTube star Austin Jones was arrested on Tuesday after being charged with two counts of child pornography production. If Jones is found guilty, he could face a prison sentence lasting to 15 years at the minimum. The 24-year-old Bloomingdale resident had just arrived from Poland where he performed in a concert when he was arrested by authorities at the O'Hare Airport in Chicago.
According to a report from The Chicago Tribune, Jones had been "chatting" with female fans, both aged 14, on Facebook wherein he encouraged them to record sexually explicit videos of themselves to send to him. This would also include dozens of images of the girls performing graphic sexual acts.
In a conversation with the first victim just last month, Jones persuaded the girl to dance in a sexually provocative manner while he instructed the girl to repeatedly acknowledge his age and hers. Jones's other victim was reportedly messaged by the YouTube star back in August 2016 wherein he told her how "lucky" she was to have caught his attention and that she needed to prove that she was in fact his biggest fan. During the conversation, he also instructed her to remove her underwear.
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"I'm just trying to help you! I know you're trying your hardest to prove you're my biggest fan. And I don't want to have to find someone else." Jones reportedly said during the conversation. With the Facebook conversations as basis, it would appear that both victims had been hesitant when asked to perform the sexually charged dances.
Two years ago, Jones faced a similar issue when he was accused of pressuring his young fans to send him inappropriate videos to him. As a response, Jones posted a video on his YouTube channel apologizing for his actions.
After that incident, it seemed like his popularity grew even more. Jones currently has 500,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel and most of them are underage girls. Now, Jones is being held by the federal court and he is yet to enter a plea.
